In an effort to increase revenue, many merchants, manufacturers, retailers, and additional entities may offer consumers a reward or loyalty program. For instance, many merchants may have a specialized loyalty program where a consumer may receive discounts, earn reward or loyalty points, and receive additional perks. In another example, many payment card issuers offer payment cards to consumers where use thereof can earn various reward points or other types of benefits from use of the payment card, such as cash back, airline miles, etc. These reward programs can often encourage a consumer to use a specific payment method, visit a specific merchant, purchase items by a specific manufacturer, etc.
However, a vast number of these reward programs often require a consumer to redeem their reward points ahead of a transaction. For instance, the consumer may be required to indicate that they want to make a purchase using their reward points prior to even initiating the transaction, or may be required to indicate reward points when selecting a payment method for a transaction. As a result, many consumers may be unaware of their ability to fund certain payment transactions with reward points, and may therefore be missing out on potential savings and opportunities.
As a result, some methods have been developed to provide a consumer with the opportunity to “erase” a prior transaction using reward points. These methods operate by enabling a consumer to use reward points to get a rebate on a transaction that has previously been settled and cleared. To do so, the consumer uses an interface, such as via a website or an application program on a consumer device, to select a specific transaction and receive a rebate for set number of reward points. However, consumers that are likely to forget to use reward points to fund a transaction may be just as likely to forget to seek out a transaction much later, after clearing, to use their reward points after the fact to erase the transaction. In addition, clearing and settlement processes can often take a number of days, which may negate the benefits of erasing a transaction as the consumer's funds would be tied up during the duration. Consumers may therefore be more encouraged to use their reward points for cash back or other rewards, and may fail to take advantage of the ability to erase a transaction.
Thus, there is a need for a technical solution to provide improvements to the computer systems for erasing a payment transaction using reward points. Specifically, there is a need for a better system that provides for stronger tracking of eligible payment transactions, erasure of payment transactions directly after authorization of the transaction, and where erasure is initiated by the system itself and not the cardholder. These technical improvements may result in a system that is significantly easier for a consumer to use, more effective, and thus resulting in a higher usage rate and thereby more benefits to entities involved.